Just seven games into his professional career, Victor Wembanyama is doing unprecedented things — and making serious noise around the NBA.
To be fair, the 7-foot-4 French phenom already had been immediately after, and even prior to, being drafted with the No. 1 pick earlier this year.
But things have gone to a whole other level over the last couple of weeks amid the 19-year old’s epic start to his NBA career.
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The San Antonio Spurs’ star rookie has lit it up at both ends of the floor, averaging 19.4 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.6 blocks — the third-most in the NBA — in just under 29 minutes for a 3-4 Spurs outfit that looks improved under his lead.
The numbers themselves are off the charts for a rookie, though his impact has gone well beyond the box score even if there have been some growing pains while he adjusts to the huge step up to the game’s premier league against star-studded opposition.
In fact, he’s already had the game to put him on the map and get everyone talking.
Wembanyama amassed 38 points with three triples, 10 rebounds and two blocks in a second-straight win over Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns in a contest the Spurs sensation took over in the clutch and outperformed the superstar duo.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Though he’d already had some big performances, it was a proper breakout game where his confidence went to another level — and his teammate started to really trust, and lean, on Wembanyama.
“Oh my god, what happened!? I don’t even believe what I saw last night (the second game against Phoenix). That kid is 19-year old and he was doing that!?,” NBA writer Zach Lowe said on ESPN’s NBA Today.
“The jumpers in people’s faces with the game on the line, the crowd is roaring, KD (Durant) and Booker are doing their thing. And he’s like: ‘Nah, I’m putting the game away’.
“He’s too tall, the Spurs offence is just going to have plays that are cut to the rim and throw it high to the air where nobody else can reach it.
Wemby torches Toronto on both ends! | 00:53
“Those are smart plays and reads of the flow, those aren’t scripted sets or broken fast breaks. That’s a dude thinking the game and then being way taller than everyone else, that stuff is scary.”
You only had to see the near 7-foot Durant playing on Wembanyama to get a proper grasp of the spindly rookie’s freakish size.
Durant was clearly left impressed after playing against Wembanyama in consecutive games too, emphasising that the exciting prodigy shouldn’t be compared to previous or current champions of the NBA including the Suns superstar himself.
“I don’t see anybody else in his game. I know we’re both skinny and I’m sure he’s said he watched me growing up, he’s his own player,” Durant said.
“He’s an enthusiasm for the game, you can tell that through the TV and playing against him. He’s his own player and personal and he’s going to create his own lane much different to anyone who’s ever played.
“You can try to compare, but he’s going to carve out his own lane.”
Indeed, while Wembanyama has been likened to names such as Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, it’s clear he’s his own player — and a special one of that.
Direct comparisons aside, US sports media personality Colin Cowherd said Wembanyama is a once-in-a-generation level pure talent.
“If you’re really honest about this, here’s the truth. The NBA only gives us one jaw dropping talent every 8-10 years — Wilt in the 60s, Kareem in the 70s, Magic and Bird in the 80s, MJ in the late 80s then 90s, Shaq in the early 2000s, LeBron 2010s, then Steph,” Cowherd began on The Herd.
“I’m not talking just because they won titles, I’m talking stuff you’ve never seen before. I’m talking: ‘Wow, OMG’, jaw dropping stuff.
“It is totally different — 7-foot-4, gets any shot he wants, fourth quarter, all stars on the floor, and he’s unstoppable.
“This guy is going to last a long time and win a lot of titles. You get about one every eight years.
“LeBron was great when he came in, but it wasn’t this. This guy gives you Giannis on one end and KD on the other.”
Wembanyama is already setting records for one of the game’s most successful ever franchises, and even the league at large.
He became the second-youngest player in NBA history with at least 35 points and 10 rebounds in a single game, with only Durant reaching those numbers at a younger age.
Wembanyama also joined Tim Duncan and David Robinson (who did it five times) as the only other Spurs rookies to record a 35-plus point double-double, while the 38 points marked the third-most ever by a San Antonio rookie.
In a separate game, Wembanyama also became the first Spurs rookie since Duncan to record to record 20 points and five blocks in a game.
ESPN already had Wembanyama ranked the third-best player aged under 25 behind only Luka Doncic and Anthony Edwards and ahead of the likes of Tyrese Haliburton, Ja Morant and Zion Williamson.
Again, all of this just seven games into his career.
While the young gun has been lauded for his defensive impact including remarkably blocking shots no other NBA players are capable of, a graphic on NBA Today showed his offensive versatility and incredible shooting touch all over the floor and beyond the arc.
After that second game against Phoenix, Wembanyama had shot a total of 38-for-76 field goals (50 per cent), with those shots quite literally coming from everywhere.
He also astonishingly ranked third in the entire NBA in clutch points this season (defined as points in the last five minutes when the score is within five), with Wembanyaa’s 21 trailing only LeBron James (23) and Luka Doncic (22) and ahead of Steph Curry (2o).
Not bad company.
He’s also currently shooting 16-for-22 (72 per cent) from the field in fourth quarters, per NBA journalist Marc Stein.
“Every player in the NBA has to earn the right to lead their team, no matter how good you are. What we saw in the first Suns game is his teammates realising: ‘This is the guy, he has earned it through his clutch play’,” WNMBA player Chiney Ogwumike told NBA Today.
“The second Suns game you saw an emerged confidence. I think what we have seen is the confidence and real time build among his teammates.
“Because the first game of the year Victor Wembanyama played, his teammates weren’t really passing him the ball the way we were all excited and expected. If you watched last night’s game (second game against Phoenix) they were feeding him the ball.
“They know he is the one that’s going to take them where the need to go. No matter how good you are as an NBA player or any professional athlete, you have to earn that right, and he has done so in such a short amount of time.”
Though Devin Vassell’s groin injury opened up more scoring opportunities in the San Antonio side, it was only a matter of time before this really became Wembanyama’s team.
Wemby crosses Durant in crazy clutch win | 00:47
It just might’ve happened sooner than anyone anticipated.
“I think he’s exceeding everybody’s expectations. I don’t think anybody predicted in the fifth game of his career he outplays Kevin Durant and Devin Booker by kind of a significant margin,” NBA analyst Chris Broussard said on First Things First.
“This dude is doing stuff that’s crazy. I honestly think he could be averaging in the mid-to-high 20s already.
“The thing I really like about him, he’s got the dog about him. He’s saying with all these expectations: ‘I want it’.
“Midway through the season I think he may be one of the top 10 players in the league.”
While so much has been made of Wembanyama the individual, one of his key attributes is his commitment to the team.
That’s something legendary coach Gregg Popovich will only further ingrain in him, but being able to park his ego and recognise the need for complete team buy in from others is special for such a young player.
“When you talked to people (in San Antonio) this summer … they would say a couple of things,” ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said.
“Every day he would do two, three or fours things you have never quite seen anybody quite do on a basketball court. People didn’t want to miss practice and be doing something else in the building, because they were seeing something they had never seen before.
“It is the character and all the intangibles he brought to the NBA that people around him and people that have scouted him have known since he was 14, 15 and 16.
“The kind of teammate he is in San Antonio. The whole world wants to make this all about him, and he is so determined to include his teammates and always talk about the team. That’s a really unique thing with a 19-year old player who is going to be the face of the NBA maybe even sooner than anyone imagined.”
The scary part about Wembanyama is that we’re only scratching the surface of his potential.
Not only does his he have so much individual scope to improve, so do the rest of the Spurs as whole, among the youngest and least-experienced NBA sides this season.
The San Antonio core is aged 24 and younger, while the team is still very much in experiment and trial-and-error mode.
That includes Popovich currently trialling 6-foot-8 Jeremy Sochan as his pseudo point guard while shifting Tre Jones into a sixth man role — a move that’s had mixed results.
As sports presenter Rachel Nichols highlighted, the prospect of eventually pairing Wembanyama with a more seasoned point guard would only further ascend the French prodigy’s game.
“Just wait until he gets an upgrade at point guard. That’s the other thing we’re not talking about, this is such a young team,” Nichols said on Undisputed.
“The Greg Poppovich experiment at point guard — I have to say, he’s a Hall of Fame coach and knows better than me — but I would not go this direction on this team, I think there’s other guys on the roster who might step in better there.
“That being said, at some point they are going to get a truly great point guard to be alongside him, and then it’s going to open up an entire other level of his game. You have to remember who he’s playing with right now.”
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